Privacy Adapter For Venetian Blinds

ABSTRACT

The Privacy Adapter For Venetian Blinds allows for independent operation of an upper portion of said blinds and a lower portion of same. This invention pertains to venetian and mini blinds as are used to provide shade and cover for windows and openings to allow light and access in buildings. Traditional blinds allow for filtering and blocking of light in said openings. This, however, leaves a lot to be desired in terms of allowing a portion of the blinds to be selectively operated and another portion of said blinds to be independently operated.

Inventor directly claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) and 37 CFR1.78 of a prior provisional application No. 63/002,587, confirmationcode 8693 on this invention filed on Mar. 31, 2020 and titled PrivacyAdapter For Venetian Blinds and Custom Fitting Stringed Instrument Pick.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention pertains to venetian and mini blinds as are used toprovide shade and cover for windows and openings to allow light andaccess in buildings. Traditional blinds allow for filtering and blockingof light in said openings.

This, however, leaves a lot to be desired in terms of allowing a portionof the blinds to be selectively operated and another portion of saidblinds to be independently operated.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The Privacy Adapter For Venetian Blinds allows for independent operationof an upper portion of said blinds and a lower portion of same in aunique and useful manner.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a better understanding of the present invention reference should bemade to the DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION below in addition tothe drawings contained in the following figures:

FIG. 1 is a front facing view of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a top facing view of the present invention.

FIG. 3 through 9 are front facing views of the present invention.

FIG. 10 through 18 are isometric views of components of the presentinvention.

FIG. 19 through 20 are isometric views of the present invention.

FIG. 21 through 22 are isometric views of the top of the presentinvention.

FIG. 23 through 38 are isometric views of an embodiment of the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 shows a front view of the upper right portion of the presentinvention with a traditional rope ladder for suspending traditionalblind slats and running the full length from top to bottom of saidblinds. Also shown in this figure is a Traditional Drawstring used toraise and lower the blinds in the traditional manner. Also shown is anAdded Rope Ladder running parallel to the Traditional Rope Ladder butonly for the first few slats. This Added Rope Ladder has Rope CrossMembers only for every other slat in the top portion of the assembly.The Upper Opening Drawstring is used to lift and lower every other slatin the top portion of the blind assembly in such a manner that everyother slat can be pulled up to rest against the slat above it and movein unison with it.

FIG. 2 shows a top view of the upper right portion of the presentinvention with a Traditional Gear mechanism for gripping and releasingthe Traditional Drawstring. Also shown here are the Upper OpeningDrawstring and Traditional Drawstring.

FIG. 3 shows a front view of the upper right portion of the presentinvention with Upper Opening Drawstring and Traditional Drawstring andevery other slat in the upper portion of the blind assembly pulled upagainst the slat above it.

FIG. 4 shows a front view of the upper right portion of the presentinvention with the Upper Shade Portion in the open position and theLower Shade Portion in the closed position.

FIG. 5 shows a front view of the upper right portion of the presentinvention with the Upper Shade Portion in the closed position and theLower Shade Portion in the closed position.

FIG. 6 shows a front view of the upper right portion of the presentinvention with the Upper Shade Portion in the open position and theLower Shade Portion in the open position.

FIG. 7 shows a front view of another embodiment of the present inventionwith a Slat Clip used to hold two adjacent slats together.

The present invention works by using left, right and potentially centerAdded Rope Ladders to lift and lower every other slat from a group ofslats so that same can be held close against the slat directly above it.Then, when the traditional mechanism used to rotate all slats (generallya rod that can be rotated along its longitudinal axis) is twisted, theslats that are held in place to the slats above them rotate also andallow light to enter the top portion of the blind system only. Thisprovides extra light without compromising privacy.

Another embodiment of the present invention provides a Slat Clip asshown in FIG. 7 , said Slat Clip can hold two adjacent slats togetherfirmly and when used on the left, right and potentially center of a pairof adjacent slats, allows those slats to be physically connected to oneanother in the manner shown in FIG. 7 . Now, when the traditionalTwisting Rod is rotated to open or close the blinds, an opening is againleft for light to pass through where adjacent slats are physicallyconnected via a plurality of Slat Clips. This embodiment provides a verylow cost means to provide a useful feature to an existing traditionalset of blinds. It also allows the user to select at will the slat pairsthey would like to have function in this manner.

Another embodiment of the present invention provides for two pairs ofmagnets as shown in FIGS. 8 and 9 , said magnet pairs can hold twoadjacent slats together firmly and when used on the left, right andpotentially center of a pair of adjacent slats, allows those slats to bephysically connected to one another in a manner similar to said slatclips in FIG. 7 . Now, when the traditional Twisting Rod is rotated toopen or close the blinds, an opening is again left for light to passthrough where adjacent slats are physically connected via a plurality ofmagnets. Additionally, every other slat below said magnet pairs, for alimited number of slat pairs, can be connected together and activatedvia added rope ladders as shown in FIG. 1 . This means a user need onlypull together slats 5 and 6 in FIGS. 8 and 9 in order to lift allconnected slats below slat 6 in order to provide a plurality of openingsfor light to pass through. Similarly, the user need only pull said slats5 and 6 apart in order to block light through these slats. This providesa very cost-effective means to implement the Privacy Adapter ForVenetian Blinds.

Another embodiment of the present invention uses a light gauge chain asshown in FIG. 10 in combination with a slat lifter as shown in FIG. 11 .The large diameter slat hooks on the light gauge chain are spaced toalign with every other slat and be placed into the existing slat holeson the blind assembly. The top hook of the light gauge chain hooks intothe arm loop of the slat lifter and as the blinds are rotated, thelonger arm of the slat lifter causes the chain to be raised more(relative to the plurality of slats) in the up direction and loweredmore in the other direction. This causes the light gauge chain andattached every other slat to be raised to produce the result of FIG. 3where every other slat is raised up to the underside of the slatimmediately above it. The light gauge chain and slat lifter combinationare placed at least two points along the axis horizontal to the blinds(the same plane as the slats). This implementation provides lightthrough in one twist of the blinds (say clockwise) and no light in theother twisting direction. This is a valuable feature of the presentinvention.

FIGS. 12 through 18 reveal several prototype models I used to developworking models of the invention. Most of these were fashioned using CADdesign tools and 3D printing methods.

FIGS. 19 through 21 show another embodiment of the present invention. InFIG. 19 I show a cradle 193 that accommodates a horizontally rotatingdrum 190 with left cord puller 191 and right cord puller 192 affixedthereto. Said rotating drum 190 rests in said cradle 193 such that itcan rotate about the horizontal axis when resting in left cradle rest195 and right cradle rest 194. This is shown also in FIGS. 20 and 21 .

FIG. 20 additionally shows a new slat raise cord 203 and existing,traditional slat cords 204 and 208. Said slat raise cord 203 is threadedthrough holes in the cradle 193 and secured via a knot as shown at thetop of said cradle 193 in FIG. 20 . This keeps the slat raise cord 203firmly secured to said cradle 193. The slat raise cord 203 is pulled viathe left cord puller 191 and right cord puller 192 upwards against theright cradle stay 199 when the square rotating rod 206 is rotatedcounter-clockwise—such that the left cord puller 191 and right cordpuller 192 move upwards against the slat raise cord 203. This in turnraises the outer length 214 of the slat raise cord 203. Since the outerlength 214 of the slat raise cord 203 is selectively attached to oneedge of at least one blind slat as shown in FIG. 21 , this raisingaccelerates the raising of these slats relative to the other slats. Thisaccomplishes the same effect as seen in FIG. 4 via rotation of therotating rod 206. Conversely, rotating the rotating rod 206 in theopposite direction allows all of the slats to fall down closed.

With this embodiment, a user need only twist the existing twist rod orpull the existing pull cord in one direction for all slats to be in theclosed position. A user can also twist the existing twist rod or pullthe existing pull cord in the opposite direction for all slats to be inthe closed position except for the ones attached to the outer length 214of the slat raise cord 203. Rotating towards the middle from eitherdirection leaves all slats open and pulling all slats upwards towardsthe ceiling is not interfered with.

FIG. 22 shows a variant of the embodiment of FIGS. 20 and 21 . In thisFIG. I show a left tilt cord section 221 and a right tilt cord section222. These allow the worm screw shaft 223 and worm screw thread 224 tobe rotated in the clockwise and counterclockwise directions. This inturn allows the master cord 226 to be pulled inwards and gathered aroundthe shaft as indicated when the cord attached to the left tilt cordsection 221 and released as the right tilt cord section 222 cord ispulled down. The master cord 226 in turn is physically connected to theleft slat raise cord 227 and the right slat raise cord 228. The leftslat raise cord 227 and the right slat raise cord 228 in turn lift orlower the selected blind slats as before, based on whether the left tiltcord 221 or right tilt cord is pulled in the downwards direction.

FIGS. 23 through 34 show yet another embodiment of the presentinvention. With this embodiment, slat rests as shown at 23001 in FIG. 23are attached to a vertical pole 23003 with adhesive pad holder 23005 andadhesive pad 23007 adhered thereto. The entire slat assembly, showngenerally at 23009 is fixed in place to the existing venetian blind railhousing at 27001, as shown in FIG. 27 . This procedure is repeated forboth left and right rope ladders and can also be done for multipleladders in between the left and right rope ladders to prevent sagging ofthe suspended blind slats.

Referring now to FIG. 25 , the scored shaft section 25001 of the lowerslat pole 25009 and upper slat pole 25007 allows the entire upper andlower slat poles to be snapped in two. The notches 25003 can then engageand lock with the holes 25005 in the hollowed out split cylinder 25015to form a longer slat pole as shown in FIG. 26 . This allows for sixslats to be used to allow light in instead of just three.

The procedure described above allows an unmodified set of venetianblinds to be easily retrofitted, without the use of tools or the need toremove the existing blinds and allow for the incorporation of thepresent invention. The resulting invention features can be seen in usein FIGS. 31 through 34 .

Another embodiment of the present invention is shown generally in FIG.36 . The slat rests 36001 are secured to the window sides as shown inthe figure. This is done on both left and right sides of the windowframe and provides the features of the present invention as shown inFIGS. 35, 37, and 38 .

While the principal features of the present invention are describedherein, it is understood that variations of the invention can be made bythose skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of theinvention.

I claim:
 1. A Privacy Adapter For Venetian Blinds wherein at least twoadjacent slats are physically connected in such a way that the upperface of the lower slat rests and is held against the lower face of theupper slat, said slats then constrained to move as a single slat for atleast part of the rotational travel through a first fully closedposition to a fully open position to a second fully closed position. 2.A Privacy Adapter For Venetian Blinds as recited in claim 1 wherein saidmeans to raise and lower said slats is via an Added Rope Ladder that isshorter than the Traditional Rope Ladder and functions in the same wayas said Traditional Ladder except that is operates on only a subset ofevery other slat in said blind system.
 3. A Partial Opening VenetianBlind System as recited in claim 1 wherein said subset of the totalnumber of blinds is opened and closed by a drawstring mechanism thatlifts and lowers a subset of slats in said Blinds System.
 4. A PrivacyAdapter For Venetian Blinds as recited in claim 1 wherein said subset ofthe total number of blinds is opened and closed by using Slat Clips toconnect an immediately below blind slat to the blind segment immediatelyabove it.
 5. A Partial Opening Venetian Blind System as recited in claim1 wherein said subset of the total number of blinds is opened and closedby twist rod or pull cord mechanism that lifts, and lowers said subsetof blinds.
 6. A Partial Opening Venetian Blind System as recited inclaim 1 wherein said subset of the total number of blinds is opened andclosed by a lever, button or switch mechanism that lifts and lowers saidsubset of blinds.
 7. A Privacy Adapter For Venetian Blinds as recited inclaim 1 wherein said subset of the total number of blinds is opened andclosed by using Magnets to connect an immediately below blind slat tothe blind segment immediately above it.
 8. A Privacy Adapter ForVenetian Blinds as recited in claim 1 wherein said subset of the totalnumber of blinds is opened and closed by using any means to physicallyconnect an immediately below blind slat to the blind segment immediatelyabove it and rope ladders or other means to selectively raise and lowera subset of all blind slats by connecting them to the topmost connectedblind slat in said subset of blind slats.
 9. A Privacy Adapter ForVenetian Blinds as recited in claim 1 wherein means to selectively raiseand lower a subset of slats is controlled via a cradle and drumarrangement as described in the specification.
 10. A Privacy Adapter ForVenetian Blinds as recited in claim 1 wherein means to selectively raiseand lower a subset of slats is controlled via a slat pole and slat restarrangement as described in the specification.
 11. A Privacy Adapter ForVenetian Blinds as recited in claim 1 wherein means to selectively raiseand lower a subset of slats is controlled via a slat rest arrangement asdescribed in the specification.